The Photoshoot
by flyingcrowbar
Summary: Gou forces the boys to do a photoshoot at the beach to raise funds for the calendar. Totally not for her own self-pleasure, of course...


"Haru-chan, make your face better!" Gou screamed, peeking out from behind the camera on the tripod.

Rei, Mako and Nagisa all dropped their poses and sagged under the heat of the sun. It was taking a lot longer than expected.

All five, the swimmers and their manager, had claimed a small part of the beach on that bright, sunny afternoon. Gou (after fighting a mighty nose bleed) came up with an idea to raise money for the club by releasing a calendar.

So, armed with nothing but their swimsuits and Gou's camera, they had set out for a photoshoot near the ocean. The breeze was marked by the tang of molding seaweed carried on the back of salt from the water. It was invigorating, being outdoors on such a beautiful day. If only the photoshoot went better because of it...

"My face? Better?" Haru asked, putting a hand to his cheek.

"Aish! You're giving me nothing! It's all-!" She relaxed her face, erasing all emotion from her features: "I am Haru. I am the Haru robot. I am so serious." She dropped the act in order to scold him some more. "If you keep this up, we're never going to sell these!"

"She's right, Haru," Makoto said, his kind eyes closed due to his smile.

"You look miserable!" she pouted. She was expecting some 'hot bod action' and no one was giving her the goods.

"I would like to be swimming right now," Haru said, staring at the sand at his feet.

"You can later! First - PERFORM."

"We're not monkeys for your amusement," Rei said, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"_Today you are_," Gou hissed, her eyes flaring. Rei stiffened instinctively.

"Loosen up! Be happy! Nobody likes a sorry sack of potatoes," Nagisa sang, bounding over to Haru. He grabbed his cheeks in his fingers and pulled them back into the fakest smile Gou had ever seen.

"Wike 'is?" Haru asked, his lips too taut to form the words properly.

"Mmm," Gou pondered.

Nagisa squished Haru's face into more configurations, arranging his expressions like he were a Mister Potato Head. Haru tolerated the torture, Nagisa seemed to be enjoying it more than anyone.

Gou was stumped. Was Haru upset about something? Sure, he loved being in the water, and probably being so close to it was killing him, but something seemed different. Then an idea struck her. Why hadn't she thought of it before?

"Ah! Haru, if I let you swim, will you be happy?"

The boy raised his eyebrows, eyes wide. His lips parted slightly, as if he were going to whisper into an invisible ear something so sweet and soulful. Gou snapped the picture. "You're a natural!"

"Good job, Haru!" Nagisa said.

So Gou let the four of them run into the water. Nagisa splashed around like a child, drenching Rei who shouted something about his glasses getting water stains, and Mako dove under just after Haru beat him to it.

"Don't go too far!" Gou shouted after them, dragging the camera and the tripod toward their new position.

She adjusted the legs so they were level again and peered through the lens. When she did she got a full, unadulterated view of the most glorious images she had ever been witness to in her short life.

She snapped a picture and captured Nagisa, throwing his arms into the air with a whoop, the water framing his slender figure, accentuating his toned abdomen with deep shadows and making his skin glisten. His little blond head glowed like he was the sun and she the moon.

Rei blocked the water from splashing on him, his biceps and triceps perfectly sculpted as if he were made of marble. The way his arm curved and met his shoulder, muscles tight under his perfectly smooth skin. He smiled, though he pretended like he wasn't having fun. She took another photo.

Mako resurfaced close by, standing and wiping the wet hair from his forehead casually with his hand. The water dripped from his body like a cloak in the wind. He was looking at in the distance, with the focus of one who wished he could say something to someone but never had the chance. His collarbones were like mountains at sundown. _Pasha_ went the shutter.

And then there was Haru, floating near Mako. His face was turned toward the sky, eyes closed. His chest was slightly out of the water, the waves lapping at his body that yearned for it. The strong line of his jaw drew her gaze toward the way his lips curled up at the corners, a smile fighting its way onto his features. He was made for the water and it for him. She didn't get a chance to take the picture.

"Perv," a deep voice said from her left.

Gou jumped and saw her brother, Rin, standing next to her, watching the four swimming as if they hadn't a care in the world. He must have just paused from a run, since he was in track gear.

"I'm not a pervert, you're the pervert!" she fluttered. It wasn't the best comeback she could have thought of. Her face was noticeably flushed.

He merely chuckled and watched as Nagisa climbed Rei like a tree and sat on his shoulders, commanding the other like his very own mecha. Mako goaded Haru well enough to do the same, so Mako go to be the head and Haru the legs.

The two teams wrestled only for a moment, playing the game called chicken fight, before Nagisa and Rei were victorious and the other two splashed into the water. Gou had a sneaking suspicion that Mako let Nagisa win.

"Are we supposed to take your team seriously?" he asked, eyebrows raised. "Shouldn't they be practicing?'

"That's something we have that you don't, big brother."

"What?"

"We play hard to work hard. And that's how we're going to win."

Rin regarded her with confusion and it slowly turned into pink-cheeked reserve. He didn't say anything more and Gou felt the swell of pride glow in her chest. She loved being a part of the group, though not for the shallow reasons one might think. She loved her boys like family.

She turned back to them in the water and peered through her camera again and she saw something surprising.

Haru was sitting from where he had fallen earlier with the biggest smile, a true smile, one that she had rarely seen before. It was as if all burden had been lifted from his shoulders, or like the water had healed a part of his spirit. The water was a life source. She captured the moment in the camera before it was too late.

"Looks like Haru's having fun, doesn't it?" Gou asked. But when she looked to where her brother was, she realized he was gone.

She turned her attention back to her team. Rei had Nagisa in a headlock and was giving him a noogie.

"Turn towards me!" she ordered. "Show off those shoulder blades!"


End file.
